Kin of Exile

by Tyler Bunyard

  Feet hitting what felt like dirt, Karrel focused his eyes and took in the new environment. The scene robbed him of his breath, and if he still had one, he was sure his heart would have stopped. The view was awe-inspiring.

  The very air itself excreted color. A vast, endless sky of purple, red, and green encapsulated the land around Karrel. The dirt he was standing upon was an impure, dark purple, almost brown to the inattentive eye. Streaks of fluorescent orange flowed through cracks in the terrain. It was as though tiny rivers of lava had consumed the continent, yet the ground remained cool to the touch. The aroma of ash and cinder smothered his senses, and Karrel could feel the dry, ambient heat all around him. Vast mountains of nothingness sprouted in every direction. Stone, dirt, and what felt like sand intermingled and shared their purple colors, making it difficult to tell them apart. At the horizon line, a wall of bright, pure, solid violet light connected the ground to the sky, as though the entire world had been walled off from the rest of existence. Yet, even with all of this color, everything seemed to contain a hint of the dullest gray within.

  Breathing the ash filled air, taking in the dry unforgiving heat, and gazing into the colorful burning skies, Karrel had never felt more alive. His body pulsed with energy. Any form of weariness had been washed away, and it was as though adrenaline had begun coursing through every vein in his body. It was like he was overdosing on caffeine, and yet he was suffering none of the side effects.

  Observing his companions, Karrel found that he was no different from the others. Angel, Puck, and Johnny were all breathing in deeply, basking in the extra vitality that had just been bestowed upon them. This is what they meant when they said they felt “better” whenever they came to this place. They were not kidding. He felt like he could punch a hole in a wall without feeling a thing. Whether he could, remained to be seen, however.

  “Welcome,” Johnny gave a wide-armed gesture toward Karrel, “to Infernum.”

  Finishing his indulgence of newly found stamina, Angel slapped Karrel on the back. “Just remember that everything you see here, wants to eat you.” he chuckled. With a semi-joyful clap, Angel rubbed his hand together and proceeded down the ramp of the portal. “Let’s get to work, shall we?”

  As Karrel walked down the ramp, he took in his immediate surroundings. Besides the barren purple lands, there was a lot of equipment surrounding him. It became immediately apparent that the others had not simply taken trips to this world, but they had prepared a small encampment around this world’s portal structure. Metal tents, work benches, bunkers, tables, chairs, and many leisurely goods were scattered around the towering transportation device.

  As he visually investigated the encampment, Karrel could not help but notice the four cubic hunks of metal that surrounded the portal. They were symmetrically placed around the structure; one was north, one east, one south, and one west, though he was not sure if those directions still worked here. They had large, heavy wires, almost the size of a small automobile, connecting themselves to the portal. It seemed as though they had electrical components that could light up, but they were simply not turned on. He never remembered seeing the underground hideout’s portal, or any of the others, having these bulking cubes attached to it; the sight was strange to see.

  “I see you’ve all been hard at work,” Karrel casually mentioned.

  “You have no idea how annoying it was to set this place up…” Puck complained.

  “The benefits far outweigh the nuisance of maintaining this place.” Johnny interjected. “I don’t need to remind you of that.” He turned to Karrel. “We’ve been building this place up, whenever we had time, for a few years. It was a bit of a pain.”

  “Really?” Karrel took a deep breath in. “I figured construction here would be a bit easier, given the surge of energy I’m still feeling.”

  “It aint about the physical labor,” Puck stated. “It’s about the restrictions.”

  “You see, there are some complications when we come here,” Johnny told Karrel. “For one, our portal cannot sustain a long connection to this world. A few hours at the most.”

  Karrel swore underneath his breath. “So, what happens if we don’t make it through the portal before it closes.”

  “Been there, done that, never doing it again!” Angel exclaimed as he lit a cigarette, apparently unconcerned with the ash-filled aroma of this world.

  “The first time I opened the rift to this dimension,” Johnny rubbed the back of his head, “I did not know about the limitations. We accidentally exiled Angel here for a day while Puck and I went back for supplies.”

  “It was hilarious!” Puck laughed.

  “It was terrifying!” Angel blew smoke at his friend. “Even worse– It was boring!” Angel gave a frustrated look at Karrel. “There was nothing to do…”

  Johnny ignored the bickering. “The point is, even though I have finished construction on this side’s portal, it only bought us a few extra hours on the rift’s stability. It can only remain open for a little less than a day.”

  “Well, if we’re planning on hunting down one of the big baddies, we’re going to need more than a day.” Karrel protested.

  “Yes, of course,” Johnny began to pull a familiar object out of his pack. “That’s why we got these.” He waved one of the stolen UWP fusion cores in his hand. “I needed to build stabilizers for this side’s portal in order to maintain a connection to our world. But for that, I required a massive amount of power. More power than I would be able to generate through any of my conventional means.”

  “Right, I remember you saying something about that,” Karrel remarked.

  “Indeed. I need two stabilizers in order to perpetually maintain the connection to our base’s portal. I set the ground work for four of them just in case.” Johnny pointed to the four cubic hunks of metal that were wired to the portal. “Now that we have three of the UWP’s fusion cores, I can finish construction on three of my stabilizers. Thus, solving our problem.”

  “And that can’t possibly be a complicated, time-consuming process,” Angel’s sarcasm was obvious.

  “That’s why all of us are here,” Johnny continued. “It’s going to take me a while to finish these devices. I, and more importantly my constructions, are going to need some protection. If anything here gets destroyed by some random demon, it will set us back months. If we lose the fusion cores, it could set us back years. And, if this base is located by any of the more intelligent demons, the ones who are actively seeking to destroy our world, we are screwed.”

  “So… Guard duty?” Karrel slouched.

  “I told you it was a nuisance coming here,” Puck shrugged.

  “Call it what you want. This needs to be done,” Johnny’s voice was firm. “From now, until I finish the stabilizers, we will come here every day. We’ll stay for as long as we can, before camouflaging the equipment and returning back to the underground hideout to sleep.”

  Karrel sighed. “I don’t know what I was expecting, but we all want to do some good for Earth. If this is what gets us there, then you’ll hear no complaints for me.” Karrel paused for a moment. “Okay, just one. We’re kinda’ on a different dimensional plane, which is super cool, and I thought maybe I might get to explore it just a bit.”

  Johnny chuckled, shaking his head. “I appreciate the adventurous spirit. Don’t worry, there will be plenty of time to explore once I finish the stabilizers. After all, upon their completion we’re going to be spending our time searching for any evidence related to our targets.”

  It was hard to push aside his own desires, but Karrel knew it was for the best. He was not here to be a kid, exploring tunnels and dark caves. His duty was to his friends, and the steps that they were taking to begin the Earth’s restoration.

  “With that out of the way,” Johnny reached into his pack once more, grabbing four large objects wrapped in a paper-like material, “who wants lunch?”

  “Yo!” Puck raised his hand and ran to Johnny. He examined the c
overed lunches for a few seconds before grabbing two of them, one of which he immediately tossed to Angel. Catching the meal, Angel lead the group to one of the nearby tables that, from the amount of purple dirt encompassing it, most likely had been there a while. It was fairly large, all things considered, and was designed more for durability than it was for family friendly gatherings.

  Karrel grabbed one of the wrapped lunches, and immediately began to tear into it as he sat down. Wrapped in the paper-like material was a large sandwich. Fresh garden vegetables, along with a heaping pile of shredded meat, garnished the two slices of bread. A familiar tear in Karrel’s eye began to form, and once more, he thanked his lucky stars for staying with this group.

  “You can thank Jessica for packing these fine lunches for us,” Johnny happily relayed.

  “Wait, what!?” Angel spouted with a mouthful of bread in his mouth. “Jessica can cook?”

  “No…” Puck sighed. “I made these damn things. Jessica only packed them…”

  “Still…” Johnny happily took a bite of his meal.

  Puck shook his head and Karrel and Angel laughed. Karrel was enjoying himself. He could not help but equate what was happening to a picnic. It was an amusing experience, even with the strangeness of being on an entirely different world. Even so, that detail granted some benefits as well. The land around him was vibrant with chroma. The ground itself illuminated everything with a low orange glow, and the skies were an everchanging painting of intense color.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Johnny nudged Karrel, catching him staring at the sky.

  Karrel nodded his head, in agreement. “I thought that the skies back home were pretty enough. But this… This is something else.”

  “Indeed, it almost makes you forget the dangers of this place.” Johnny took another bite of his sandwich. “I have seen many paintings in my time, but no artist has ever come close to capturing the natural beauty of the world.” About to lean in for another bite, Johnny stopped himself. “Well, any world, I suppose.”

  “Honestly, I never imagined any of this was possible.” Karrel mused. “Different Worlds? A book that grants me the impossible? Becoming heartless? I’ve always spent my life thinking practically, never extending my reach too far because of the dangers it held. I found the need to take a step back every once in a while, and ask myself ‘why am I here?’ and ‘is all of this for real?’” Karrel put a hand over his chest, covering where his heart should be. “After having a part of me ripped out though, I no longer need to ask those questions. I know what happens if we don’t do what we need to do, and how very real the consequences are. I just hope I don’t lose myself in the process… Or, you know, any other body parts.”

  Johnny chuckled at Karrel’s attempted humor. He was nodding his head in agreement. It became obvious to Karrel that he was not the only one questioning his reality. “It could be worse,” Johnny thought aloud. “You could have lost your head.”

  Suddenly, a loud explosion of sound echoed through the group, as a gust of compressed air washed over everyone. The pressure wave seemed to originate from Angel’s position, and as Karrel turned his gaze toward his dark-eyed friend, he found himself rejecting the images in front of him.

  Still sitting at the table, Angel’s body was leaning in for another taste of the delicious lunch. His hands had positioned the sandwich for another bite, but where his head should have been, there was a mess of navy-blue smoke swirling in the air. It was as though his head had exploded.

  Johnny, Karrel, and Puck sat silently, as the navy-blue smoke rotated around Angel. Words failed to form for Karrel, and in his dumbfounded state he found himself unable to bring his gaze away from his headless friend. Johnny dropped his sandwich onto the table.

  Slowly, but surely, the navy-blue smoke began to compress back into shape. In a matter of a few moments Angel’s head started to reform. Once his eyes and mouth were discernible, he cracked his jaw displaying the irritation behind his expression. His head finally reconstituted, he shot an intense glare at his green-eyed friend.

  “Puck…” Angel snarled. “You’re friggin’ dead!”

  Angel jumped up from the table leaping toward Puck in a highly aggressive manner, but Puck was already on his feet, bellowing a chain of laughter as loudly as he could. He easily dodged Angel’s assault and began sprinting away. Angel proceeded to chase him around the encampment.

  “Huh,” Karrel let his thoughts escape him, “Puck actually went through with the exploding sandwich.”

  Johnny continued to stare at the two friends dodging around the tents and workshops, listening to Angel scream obscenities at Puck. Angel aggressively reminded his green-eyed friend that he was capable of dying, and that he should not risk these things. However, Puck only found the notion of a sandwich being Angel’s demise more hilarious.

  “Exploding sandwich?” Johnny rolled his eyes. “He tried to rope you into that, as well?”

  “He’s been wanting to do it for a while,” Karrel began eating his lunch once more.

  “You would be correct in that statement,” Johnny shook his head. “His idea of a practical joke is blowing up his friend’s head. How he could argue against our loss of humanity is beyond me.”

  Karrel pondered for a moment, watching the continued feud between Angel and Puck. It had escalated quite a bit in the past minute, and rocks and shadowy bolts of smoke were now being thrown around. He could not help but smile.

  “I don’t know…,” Karrel speculated, “When I look beyond the powers, and the supernatural elements, I still see mankind in us. To be honest, I’m terrified of changing. But as I sit here and watch Puck prank his friend, and Angel want to rip apart the person who just blew his head off, I can’t help but think that we aren’t really losing our humanity. We’ve just added something onto it.”

  “That’s an interesting way to view it,” Johnny conceded. “It doesn’t change the fact that those gemstones changed us, and that the change is probably demonic, in some way.”

  “Yeah, well what am I going to do?” Karrel inquired. “I never saw that pretty red “demonstone” again, so it’s not like I can go back and complain.”

  “Speaking of which,” Johnny replied, “if you don’t mind me asking, where exactly did you find yours? Puck brought up a great point when he asked how the stones got to us in the first place. Knowing the story behind how you ended up with one might help me in that endeavor.”

  “I– I don’t like talking about it,” Karrel hesitated. “It’s a memory I keep buried, and for good reason. You know?”

  Johnny nodded his head. “I understand. But, you need to as well. I’ve gone as far forward with my investigations as is possible. Your missing heart provided me with some much-needed context on what is happening to us, but to figure out why, I must look back. Our origins may hold key information. So far, the only relation I have gathered is that something terrible was happening to us when the–” Johnny cleared his throat uncomfortably, “demonstones, as you all now call them, presented themselves to us.” He paused for a short moment. “I know you don’t like talking about it, but whatever tragedy you’ve buried might shine a light on this whole thing if you’d just uncover it.”

  Karrel stayed silent for a long time. Johnny did not move, hoping that his words had gotten through to his friend. The silence was only broken by the slow methodical crunches of Karrel’s sandwich as he continued to eat.

  “You said ‘something terrible,’ right?” Karrel did not look away from his sandwich. “Like what?”

  Johnny leaned back in his seat before nodding his head. “I suppose it’s only fair,” he began, “if you’re going to share, I should as well. I found my demonstone five years ago, during a UWP raid.”

  “Raid?” Karrel shot Johnny a confused gaze. “How did you get caught up in one of those? The UWP rarely leave their superdomes.”

  “The raid took place inside of a superdome. I was already there.”

  Karrel put his sandwich dow
n. Giving Johnny his full attention.

  “My parents were UWP officials,” Johnny revealed. “I spent most of my childhood in one of those massive domes.”

  Karrel felt his mouth drop. “You’re an official’s child? That’s akin to royalty! Why in the hell would you leave?”

  “I was forced to, after my parents were killed…” Johnny took in a deep breath. “I’ve told you before, there are a few UWP members that wish for the world government to step up and protect the remaining cities like they were supposed to. Only a few believe in those ideals. That’s because those who do speak out are silenced with the utmost haste. Unfortunately, my parents were good people. They worked their way up the ladder until they could grasp a seat of power. When they did, they argued for the protection of the people. One meeting, Karrel. One. They held a single gathering to simply discuss the idea of fulfilling the UWP’s original role. They were immediately accused of assisting “the resistance,” which I assume is what they call the Survivor’s Guild. A short time after, our house was broken into. It wasn’t a robbery, those don’t happen inside of a superdome. It was an assassination. I watched a squad of armed soldiers gun my family down before they came searching for me.”

  “Damn…” Karrel swore under his breath. “How’d you escape?”

  “I knew my house better than the intruders, slightly. I was able to slip past them and make a break for the nearest exit in the superdome. I thought I’d given them the slip when I was outside, but it turned out they just didn’t want to gun a fifteen-year-old down in the streets. They were waiting for me to get to an exit, because they knew no one else would be down there, and the security systems would stop me before I ever got close to leaving. They were right. I was screwed when I got to the hallway leading to the wasteland. A reinforced door blocked my exit. The only way to open it was in the nearby security station. When I entered that room, I found myself staring at two x-bots. Luckily, I hadn’t been flagged in the system yet, so they didn’t shoot me, but none of it mattered. The x-bots didn’t have permission to let me leave the superdome, and I had no idea how the security systems worked. I saw on the monitors the hit-squad bearing down on me, and I knew it was all over.”